Concerns Raised About Changes To Grid If Yankee Closes

(Host)
The company that controls Vermont's
transmission network is concerned about the reliability of the New England power grid if Vermont Yankee is shut down.

The
Vermont Electric Power Company has asked for a study of how the system will be
affected if Yankee goes off line when its license expires in 2102.

VPR's
John Dillon reports:

(Dillon)
Utilities will have to buy replacement power if Vermont Yankee is retired on
schedule in 2012. But utility officials are worried about another potential cost
as well. The 620 megawatts that the nuclear plant pumps into the regional grid
keeps the system in balance.

What
happens to the electricity grid when that much generation is removed? Would the
system become less stable, and more prone to failures or blackouts? These are
the questions the Vermont Electric Power Company is asking. The company owns
the state's bulk transmission lines. Christopher Dutton is C-E-O.

(Dutton) "The study is designed to
look at the system with Vermont Yankee no
longer available. It's designed to find out or identify how many hours of a
given year and at what level of load the system is confronted with problems."

(Dillon)
The reliability study is being conducted by ISO New England, the independent
system operator that controls New
England's wholesale
electricity market. Vermont Yankee has operated without much interruption for
many years. But the Legislature has so far refused to extend the plant's
license. Dutton said the uncertainty over Yankee's future prompted ISO New
England to look at what would happen if the nuclear plant goes off line.

(Dutton) "It was only, I would
say, in the last eight months to a year when the politics have started to
indicate that there was doubt, some real doubt, about the plant's license
extension beyond 2012 that they've come to conclude that perhaps we ought to be
doing some planning now to reflect the uncertainty associated with
re-licensing."

(Dillon)
The physics of the electric grid require a constant balance between the amount
of power being used and the electricity being generated.

Now,
power planners are concerned that the loss of a major generation source like
Vermont Yankee could have an impact throughout the region.

Marcia
Blomberg is a spokeswoman for ISO New England.

(Blomberg) "The larger the
generator and the more efficient it is the greater the potential concerns could
be with reliability. But there are also solutions and they could include
transmission upgrades, private developers could build new generation, and
energy efficiency could also be among the possible answers."

(Dillon)
The study will look at various options, including how much new generation may
be required to keep the system operating reliably.